Previously on Boston Public: Lauren dumped Harry; Anthony Heald found Anthony Wards hit-list journal; Anthony Ward told Stephen that its fun to imagine bullies dead, but he would never do it.
In an auditorium somewhere, a debate team from Winslow High is competing with a team fromsomewhere else. As Scott Anthony Heald Guber watches anxiously from the audience, one of the Winslow kids is saying, basically: Our side good. Other side bad. As Einstein said, Our side good. Other side bad. I mean, you know, hes a bit more eloquent, but thats the gist. He finishes just in time, Anthony Heald applauds with relief, and the judges confer in hushed tones. For five seconds. Without even leaving the room . Then they announce that Winslow is the winner, everybody cheers, the judge hands Winslow a trophy and tells them theyve qualified for State, and Scott books it up the aisle to meet his team outside. He seems pissed, as he disses some random guy in the audience who tries to congratulate him on having a good team.
On the bus, Scott tries to ignore his teams giddy celebrating, but can only contain himself for a few seconds. Are we all quite pleased with ourselves? They all say yeah. There was no triumph in that room tonight. We were sloppy. And I take no pride in being your coach. Mr. Powers, if you took the time to check your flow, you might see that you dropped the point during negatives rebuttal, they bring up Individualism, quoting J.S. Mill, and your response was nothing. Nothing, Mr. Powers. And Ms. Carmadie, lets discuss your second affirmative where you ran out of time. Mr. Peterson, your three-by-fives were scattered like a deck of playing cards in a game of fifty-two pick-up. None of you displayed any argumentative command. This performance reflected shoddy preparation, shoddy command. The only reason we were victorious is because we were blessed with a flaccid panel of judges who knew less about Lincoln-Douglas debate rules than you. And not to mention an opposing school whose main use for a hard text is to kill cockroaches. It was a shoddy school we just defeated, with a shoddy performance, and shoddy will just not cut it at the state finals. Now stick out your shoddy, shoddy tongues. Do your exercises. The team sticks out their tongues and starts doing "exercises" which look borderline obscene. Scott sits down and says, once more to himself, Shoddy.
Shoddy opening credits with shoddy music and a shoddy absence of Joey Slotnick. Shoddy.
“ Lisa points out that maybe theyll stop getting flak for letting a student teach if shes no longer a student. Scott says hell look at her application. I am on the edge of my seat. WILL LISA GREER GRADUATE EARLY!? Good lord, someone get me a spoiler on this. ”
Driving along on her way to school, Lauren Should Have Called Avis Davis sings along with her radio: Ill always loooove my maaaaamaShe brought me in this world This song will become relevant later, I suppose. Probably as part of an end of episode montage ending at a cemetery. Anyway, Laurens engine coughs, sputters, and dies, as she begs it not to in TV style, Oh, come onpleasedont do this to me And so on. But it does, and shes stranded on the side of the road. She gets out of the car and checks the engine, which is smoking. She goes purposefully to the trunk, as though shes been planning this as the cars ultimate fate all along, and gets a baseball bat. (Guh?) She walks back around to the side and smashes the windows. She pounds on the hood, and shatters the headlights. A small crowd laughs and points, except one dark-haired kid, who watches with interest. Lauren climbs up onto her hood and smashes her windshield, and then jumps frantically up and down on the hood, shrieking battle cries like Penthesilea, the Amazon Queen, raging in that fresco Aeneas finds in Book Four, I think. And here comes her Achilles: the kid who wasnt laughing says, with hilarious understatement -- get this: Is everything all right? Like, ha ha. Not. Lauren says that her car died, and the kid says, And youre performing CPR? This kid is a laugh a minute. Lauren explains that its dead and shes just frustrated. She must be REALLY frustrated, in lots of different ways, because this whole car-smashing thing is really out of character. Sensing her frustration, the kid steps a little closer. Or maybe he just recognizes her, because he says, Ms. Davis? Do I know you? Im Daniel Evans. I was in your history class? I graduated four years ago. Daniel! Hi! How are you? Fine, how are you? Great. I graduate from Northeastern this Spring. She tells him he looks great. He tells her so does she, and helps her off the hood of her car. Then he offers her a lift to school, and she says shell just walk. He grins at her like an idiot and says goodbye and walks off. She makes a really weird face, either thinking hes hot, or shes embarrassed about the car smashing, or both.
Urban beats. Kids get off buses. The second unit shots continue to defy the tone of the actual show. This is not Dangerous Minds, DEK -- get over it.
Let me see, how to begin the scene? I know! In the Hallway of Plot Establishment. With a question flecked with incredulity! The debate team? Harry Senate is saying to Scott, who explains that he needs a kid with stage presence and flair to make his team truly great. Apparently, hes asking Harry if any of the kids in the dungeon would be appropriate. I dont think any of my kids have ever debated before. Except with law enforcement. AH HA HA HAA! Wait, no, that hasnt happened to any of them all year that weve seen. Hmmm. Maybe if you showed us how dangerous these kids are, instead of telling us, while showing us how they correctly use the word "mitigating," then all of the claims about them being the dregs of the school wouldnt ring totally false. Aaaanyhow, Scott says theyre one dynamic speaker away from being the perfect team: We have no pizzazz, no flair. Lisa My-Fair-lita Greer appears at Scotts elbow. I mean, you know, shes as tall as he is; its an expression. I want to graduate now, she says. Buh? Lisa explains she has enough credits, and that her applicationthen Harry tries to leave, and Lisa tells him to stay. I guess shes finally gonna call in her favor from him, in a totally lame way. You fully support my graduating early, dont you Harry? Harry says he does. Then he goes. Lisa points out that maybe theyll stop getting flak for letting a student teach if shes no longer a student. Scott says hell look at her application. I am on the edge of my seat. WILL LISA GREER GRADUATE EARLY!? Good lord, someone get me a spoiler on this. As these folks all disperse, Lauren comes down the stairs in the background, along with Marilyn Non-Violent Commuter Souter, who is asking her, a tad incredulously, So you just left it there? The car, I guess. Lauren says she had it towed. I cant believe one of my old students saw me jumping on my car. And beating it up with a baseball bat. I dont think he saw that part. Oh ho ho! Mercy! How whimsical. You know what this reminds me of? Senior trip. What was that waiters name? Jean-Luc! Ah ha ha haa! Wait, no, Lauren and Marilyn are not those people; they are merely that annoying. Just then, a really agitated little blond boy tugs nervously at Marilyns sleeve and asks if he can talk to her in private. She acquiesces, so she and Lauren vacate the frame in different directions, leaving it open for Principal Steve Harper to saunter in. But he is immediately grabbed by an anxious little blonde girl who tugs nervously at his sleeve and asks to talk to him. Sure, what is it? Anthony Ward. What about him? Well, I cant be sure, but I think he threatened to kill me.
“ He offers to show it to her, and she says shed love to see it, and for now theyre still talking about the textbook hes writing. ”
In Ms. Souters room, Anxious Boy is asking her, Why cant I do it over? Surprised at what Ill call the incredulity of his question, Marilyn points out to the kid, whose name is Jeremy, that he got an eighty-five. Ive got to work on the yearbook, layouts are due, I have a trig test tomorrow, a paper for history. Look, I know I should have studied harder, I wanted to, but I got tired. I had to sleep. I couldnt help it, I had to. Please let me take it again. Marilyn tells him that a B+ is not going to affect his final grade, but Jeremy only freaks out more: I promised my mom Id get an A. Its what she wants. I promised. Shes gonna kill me if she sees this. Et cetera. Marilyn instructs him to take slow, deep breaths, which he does. Then Anxious Boy throws up all over her floor.
In Stevens office, where he has these dorky blocks that spell out READ on his desk, which Ive never noticed before, Anxious Boys platinum blonde superhero twin, Anxious Girl, is telling her tearful story about Anthony Ward to Steven while Scott hovers. He asked me to the prom. Kept asking me, actually. I said no. Well, last night he actually came over to my house, he had flowers, and he asked again. And I tried to be polite about it before, but I finallyI said, No, Anthony, Im not going to the prom with you, try to get it through your head. Id rather stay home. And then he looked at me all weird, and said in a calm voice, Youll regret that. And he walked away. I know he has that hit list, Im totally freaked. She does seemed totally freaked. I like, though, how Anthony saying things in a calm voice makes him more scary. Steven asks if shes talked to him since, and Anxious Girl says no. Steven sends her out of the room so he can discuss it with Scott, and tells her to come tell them if Anthony says anything else to her. He gives me a really bad feeling, Mr. Harper. I understand. And we will deal with this immediately. She thanks him and goes, probably to plan what shell do at home, alone, the night of the prom. When they're alone, Scott says, Let me talk to him. That did not work last time, and Steven, who has the unique ability to recall episodes, mentions this. Scott says that he doesnt disagree, but let me just have one conversation with the boy before we do anything rash. Steven says okay, because at this school everyone always gets one more chance than however many chances theyve already received.
Ms. Davis room. Shes writing something on the board, probably something historical or whatever, when Daniel The Graduate Evans comes in. She smiles, surprised but not displeased to see him. He asks if everything went okay with the car, and she says, Yeah. I won. Um. Why are you here? The Graduate says, Uh, forgive me, butafter I saw you this morningyou probably have no idea, but my junior year all I wanted to do was smoke pot. And you pulled me aside one day, and I dont remember what your exact words were BWA HA HAA! but I walked away feeling like my life, my future, was in my hands. I think you mean that they "were" in your hands, but Ill let that slide. I mean, to you it was probably just a boilerplate apply yourself speech, but to me it really had an effect. And as I was driving away this morning, I was thinking you probably have no idea the impact you had on me, or other students. So I decided to drive back here and tell you. Lauren says that that means more to her than he knows, but I think he knows precisely what it means to her and thats why he drove all the way back here to get into her pants -- I mean, to tell her that sweet story. I majored in history, he says, and Im working on a history text. He offers to show it to her, and she says shed love to see it, and for now theyre still talking about the textbook hes writing.